Séamus Ahearne: What would the world be, once bereft,  Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. (Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins, quoted by Michael Longley)

Weekend 17/18^th August-Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom is building a house and then erecting a sign, with an invitation for all the ignorant and foolish to come along. The language is strong but the idea is good. I like Grand Designs (TV programme with Kevin McCloud). House-building is challenging but very special. Should men protest that Wisdom is associated with women in the Bible? The House we are building in faith is a place; a home; an open door; even a half-door of welcome. Where stories are told. Where imaginations are opened. Where possibilities are seen. In so many ways – the Church is a building of Wisdom. For teasing out the wonders of God. For unveiling the beauty. For the revelation of awesomeness in the mystery of each person. For celebrating the poetry of life. For minding the hurt and the broken. For breaking the bread of experience. For sharing the music of life and pain and awe. For stretching the muscles of the mind in thinking of God. A man at Mass this morning (16^th August) said, “I feel a glow after yesterday’s feast. (Assumption). She was a mother. She was real. She went through all that we go through. She now has gone home. She is a model of who we are, and where we are going. Yes. I feel a ‘glow’ of hope.” There is that invitation into the House of Wisdom. There is the Bread Broken and Shared. There is God. There is the Holy Ground. We had to ‘take off our shoes.’

The Honours System:

Matthew Syed (London Times on Thursday) wrote a piece on Tom Daley (the diver) who won another medal at the Olympics for the UK. He was appealing to Tom not to accept a knighthood. The honours system should be for people who do something for others and not given to those ‘professionals’ who are already benefitting themselves. They are ‘recipients of public services and not providers. (His view). It is often a case in point for us. Do we acknowledge the many quiet people who do all the background work in life and we can almost take them for granted? The little people everywhere are really the backbone of society and are usually not well rewarded. A simple case – throughout the Summer in the schools:  Who were the ones there all the time and working? The cleaners and the caretakers! I know the Principals have other work to do. The danger in parish life too is that we take for granted those who quietly do pick up all the pieces and are always there. They do all the simple praying too.

A rambling reflection:  (1)

I did a little meandering back in time last week. I came across an article of Reflection from June 2020. It was a comment plus an analysis of the response in the Referendum to abolishing the Eight Amendment. Jim Stack did some statistical modelling on the role non-believers played in dismissing the 8^th Amendment. He further used a small sampling piece done by the Iona Institute on belief. What emerged was that a very small percentage of people ever prayed (Iona). Jim’s reflection extrapolated from that, what being Catholic seems now to mean for many. It is cultural rather than religious. He suggested that if people claim not to (or never) pray; then they cannot be called Catholic. The non-praying has to dilute any religious sentiment. The Catholic view on Abortion wasn’t only an issue for this specific group (the Catholic sector). Abortion was much wider and different. However, the non-praying population was less likely to be too bothered about the details of what abortion really meant. Further to that, there was an explosion of carefreeness at the result of the Referendum. It appeared as a liberation moment, when the scream of being free was cathartic. The shackles of religion could be smashed at last. The issue wasn’t the issue anymore. It was the liberation from the tyranny. That too infected any serious thinking on the issue. The excitement at the result showed an irreverence to the seriousness of the issue where no attempt had been made to address other possibilities. Some of our present day politicians were very loud and very dismissive of other views at the time.

Still rambling (2)

It was interesting to follow some comments around the death of Edna O’Brien. She achieved popularity and notoriety when her writings were censored. She has been hailed as one of the people who ‘set women free.’  Of course she contributed. Of course it was necessary. Of course she was ‘prophetic.’ But we do have to be more careful in our inclination to make heroes and or heroines of such characters. The past wasn’t all bad. We weren’t all locked up in our thinking. The new world of today is not necessarily a better place! There is always something wider and deeper for thinking about. Trivial thinking is very dangerous. We can admire and should, people like Edna, but we cannot wander into infatuation.

A pause in the rambling |(3)

Moreover the issues raised by Jim Stack do matter. What now is the level of unbelief in the country? As people who minister in the world of faith, what should we be doing or thinking? We still carry on with the school juggernaut of First Communion and Confirmation. We also baptise every baby that arrives. We bury everyone. But in truth – should we press a pause button? That is not a dismissal of anyone or a condemnation of anyone or even a judgement of anyone. It is the reality. Where has God gone?  Where is God to be found? How is God to be celebrated? Does the Mass we celebrate have much to do with the reality of most people’s lives? Does the set- up of the Liturgy (with its absurd Latinised prayers) reach any part of the normal experience of today’s world in our country? By the way, I also would ask the question: How much praying do we do as ministers? How prayerful are we when we meet in Church? How prayerful is our Mass? This isn’t a moan at anyone or about the sad state of affairs now. We are philosophers of religion, and theologians, struggling to cause the Word, to become flesh these days. It is this new world, we inhabit. This is the world for the Incarnation. This is our job. We can’t reconstruct yesterday’s world, and shouldn’t try. Or else Jim Dillon’s comment will apply to poor Conor Cruise O’Brien: ‘He has a wish-bone for a back-bone.’ Quidquid recipitur…

Seamus Ahearne osa

17^th August 2024